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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1156 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

the skills developed, the experience and local knowledge established and the commitment to Canberra proven. These should be exploited and strengthened. This may not generate many photo opportunities for me as Chief Minister, but I think it is a small price to pay to strengthen existing Canberra businesses.

This is not to say that attracting new businesses to the ACT through incentives is not an essential element of Labor's refocusing of industry assistance. The difference is that we will target industry assistance to attract businesses that complement our industry plan. There is no point in attracting businesses if the business environment in the ACT is not suitable or if there will be an unfair advantage in competing with local established businesses. We must be strategic. Industry assistance under Labor will be assessed according to uniform criteria. It will not be open-ended. There will be firm commitments regarding the nature and scale of the proposed operations and the benefits to the ACT economy. There must be a local content or impact statement. Also, in stark contrast to Kate Carnell, I give a firm commitment that all industry assistance decisions will be open and accountable. I will not be hiding behind a wall of commercial-in-confidence.

So far I have outlined a long-term strategy to diversify the ACT economy; but, unlike Kate Carnell, I cannot ignore the immediate crisis facing our community. Labor is not afraid to give a real commitment to countercyclical measures such as labour market programs and capital works. These would be financially responsible. I am not advocating spending our way out of the Liberals' recession, but its effects must be ameliorated. We must act with compassion. There must be balance between long-term economic development needs and short-term crisis management.

A marked difference in direction between Labor and Liberal would be Labor's real commitment to the unemployed of Canberra. We would not be insulting the intelligence of unemployed people by merely pretending to address their needs. We would not be calling something a Job Funds and spending more than half of it on subsidies to business, business incentive schemes, tourism promotion and existing big project commitments. Unlike Mrs Carnell and her friends in the Federal Parliament, we will not abandon those members of our community who are unemployed. We will not be telling them to wait for better times and to stop whingeing. We will focus on rebuilding Canberra's economy. We will also be ensuring that the unemployed are assisted through labour market programs which address their needs for skills maintenance and development and for support in their search for employment.

Labor recognises its obligations to the unemployed. Enhanced labour market programs are a well-established and appropriate response to cyclical economic downturn. Indeed, we saw this demonstrated by the Federal Labor Government's Working Nation package, which assisted those bearing the brunt of the economic downturn. In the ACT, we are doubly obligated. In the first place, as the ACT was pushed into economic recession, the Federal Liberal Government severely cut back on labour market programs. Secondly, as the rest of the nation recovers economically, and Canberra continues in recession, those Federal labour market programs that remain are inadequate in the face of Canberra's increased need.

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